I promised you some tips and techniques for pitching your project to publishers, booksellers, potential customers, etc. And I will get to that—perhaps tomorrow. This morning, however, I am quite joyfully distracted by something I discovered yesterday.
I’ve suggested that you do an Internet search using your own name occasionally to see what sort of publicity you’re getting and where. If you’ve been doing any self- (or book) promotion at all, you may be surprised at what comes up.
Well, yesterday, I decided to see what I could find out about blogs and their ratings. Of course, I was interested in my blog’s ratings amidst other writing/publishing blogs. During the search, I discovered my name in places I didn’t expect. Here’s what I found in a matter of only 20 minutes or so:
1: Novelist Dwan Abrams published my article, “The Missing Link in Publishing†last year at her blog site. She said that the editor of Urban Christian sent it to her.
2: Loree Griffin Burns used her blog site to publicly thank me for helping her get her book published. She said it was what she learned in my online book proposal course that made the difference. Her book, Tracking Trash was picked up by Houghton Mifflin, children’s division. Learn more about my online, on-demand courses at http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm
3: The host of a blog site related to community spirit had taken my article on peaceful neighborhoods, presumably, from my website and reprinted it.
4: Ruth Pealer mentions meeting me at the Central Coast Writers’ Conference last year.
5: Angela, over at Wow! Women on Writing, reproduced one of my articles in their blog.
6: Christy Lawler reviewed my book The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book in her blog.
7: Angela Booth posted quotes from my blog on her blog.
8: One blogger posted my response to an email question on her blog.
9: Someone I don’t know recommends my blog on his blog site.
10: One of my quotes from an article on relationships was posted at a bridal blog site.
11: ZDocs blog recommends my book, The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book as an excellent resource for authors. Order it TODAY at http://www.matilijapress.com/rightway.html
12: I found my article on meditation walking posted at another blog site.
13: Lillie Ammann mentions one of my articles at her blog site.
I’d let you in on the secret of how I found pages and pages of links to blog sites containing my name, but I’m afraid it is still a secret. I don’t remember how I found it. And this morning, without thinking, I deleted all of my cookies and accumulated web files. I had such a good time doing this research, though, that I will attempt to locate the sites again. This time, I’ll make notes so I can share them with all of you.
In the meantime, keep putting your name and your book title out there through articles/stories in magazines, ezines, newsletters and websites; published interviews; comments at other blog sites and websites and so forth. Until I get a satisfactory comments option for this site, you can contact me at PLFry620@yahoo.com
If you can’t find your name listed dozens of times on the web, you aren’t getting out enough.